But It's Raining
by GatesThistle
Summary: Jean and Eren have car trouble. In the middle of the night. On an empty road. And it's raining. Modern/College AU


"This is your fucking fault."

Jean raised his head from where it had been resting on his forearms on the steering wheel, a look of incredulity on his face. "How the fuck is this my fault?"

"If you had been driving better…"

"This has nothing to do with my driving, it was _your_ shitty car that got us into this mess."

Eren bristled. "There is nothing wrong with my car."

"You need to take better care of it, the tires were old, that's why we're stuck here."

"I'm an entirely broke college kid, did you honestly expect me to get new tires unless I absolutely needed them?"

"Well congratulations, now you do."

"Fuck you."

"Funny how you always seem to resort to that. There something you want from me, Jaeger?"

"You're gay."

"Those in glass houses…"

"I'm _bi,_ you complete dick."

"See, there's your fixation with my dick again."

"Why don't you go fuck yourself with a cactus?"

"You just don't like that you're losing."

"Look, do you know how to change a tire or not?"

He turned away looking ashamed, and Eren felt triumphant for all of one second before he realized what that meant.

"Fuck."

"My thoughts exactly."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Eren opened the door.

"Whoa," Jean said, reaching across him to pull the door shut. "Where do you think you're going, it's raining like crazy out there."

His heart sank as he saw the look in Eren's eye. It was the same look he got when they were ten years old and Jean had dared him to climb the tallest tree in the neighborhood. Mikasa had tried to stop him, but nothing could stop him when he decided he was going to do something. He had broken his arm of course, but he had only smiled savagely towards Jean as Mikasa silently panicked beside him and Armin had run off to find an adult.

"All of our friends are busy, and even if they weren't we're hundreds of miles out of town on a deserted street in the middle of the night. It's raining apocalyptically, so I doubt anyone is going to stop and save us, even if someone were to drive along. I'm changing this tire."

"Have you ever done it before?"

"Nope." His expression didn't change, if anything, he looked even more determined.

"Do you even know how?"

"Mikasa taught me once, but that was a long time ago."

Jean sighed. "Don't expect me to help you. It's raining out there."

Eren rolled his eyes. "Thanks I hadn't noticed." He opened the door again, and stepped out into the maelstrom.

He was soaked in an instant.

Sighing, He moved to the trunk, where the spare tire was kept.

Inside the car, Jean was trying to call anyone who wasn't currently busy, across the country or asleep.

"'Lo?"

"Marco, babe. Hey."

"Jean? It's like three AM why are you calling me?"

"I'm so sorry did I wake you?"

He laughed tiredly. "You did, but I fell asleep on my textbook so I guess I should thank you."

"You should get back to sleep, forget I called."

"No, 'm awake now. What do you need?"

"Um." Jean heard a resounding crash and a yelp from outside the car. "So, you know how Eren and I went back home for fall break, and we drove Eren's piece of shit car? And the rest of you couldn't come because you had shit to do?"

"Yeah."

"Well, we're currently a few hours out of town and one of the tires blew and it's raining a lot outside and I don't know how to change a tire and Eren, who weighs all of, what, 140 pounds? Is out there attempting to change his first tire."

"Oh my god."

"No, don't sound amused, I can tell you're about to laugh."

"I knew that you and Eren driving several hundred miles alone together would be entertaining, but this is amazing."

"I think you pronounced awful incorrectly," Jean pouted.

"Of course babe. I'm really sorry, I would love to come pick you up, but I have work in five hours so I really don't have time to drive there, pick you up and drive back and get to work on time. I'm really sorry."

"No, it's okay, I shouldn't have asked you. It was really selfish of me."

Eren let out a particularly loud curse followed by a thunk.

Marco laughed. "I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you're back before I have to leave for work. I've missed you."

"I missed you too, Marco. I'll see you soon. Hopefully."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Jean sighed, and once again began flipping through his contacts. Stopping on one number.

"I'm at work, so this had better be good."

"Nice to hear from you too Mikasa."

"You're lucky you caught me while we were taking a break. I have five minutes before I need to be back in the meeting."

"Shit. I forgot that you were in that big European internship. Fuck."

"What do you want?"

"Well, Eren and I are stuck in the rain in the middle of the night and no one is free to drive us back."

There was silence on the other end.

"Mikasa?"

"You got my brother trapped with you on a dark rainy road."

"It's not my fault! It's his shitty car."

Mikasa sighed. "You better get him out of this unscathed or I will rip your dick off. I don't care how much Marco likes it and how nice he is. It's gone."

"Thanks," Jean managed to squeak out. "You've been very helpful."

"Tell Eren to suck it up and call Levi."

"Levi?"

"Just tell him to do it."

"Okay."

There was some mumbling in French on the other end. "Look, I've got to go, remember. Get him out of there."

Mikasa, usually so calm and collected, was fucking terrifying when she wanted to be. Jean supposed that was why she was already so successful in international business before she had even graduated from college.

Jean crawled into the back and opened the window, cringing away from it when rain came through it. "Eren," he called out.

"What?" He replied, standing up from where he was struggling with a tire iron. Jean stifled a laugh. He was soaking wet, and his knees and ass were covered in mud. Eren growled as he noticed that Jean was holding back laughter, and pushed the damp strands of hair out of his face. "What do you want?"

"I called your sister."

"Why, she's in Europe."

"I know that now. Anyway, she told me to tell you to suck it up and call Levi."

Eren froze. "Fuck no."

"Come on, you've been out here in the freezing rain for ages and you haven't even gotten the tire off yet, aren't you getting a little desperate?"

"I said no," he crouched back down and began wrestling with the iron again.

Jean sighed and closed the window, crawling back to the front seat once again.

He sat there for a few minutes before his curiosity and desperation got the better of him, and he began digging through Eren's bag until he found his phone. It was unlocked, and Jean snorted. For someone so antagonistic, Eren was shockingly trusting.

He scanned his contacts before finding one labeled "Levi".

He only considered it for a few moments before calling the number.

"So it's been weeks and you decide it's a good idea to call me at three in the morning?" A low voice answered.

Jean swallowed. He had been unprepared to actually answer.

"Jaeger, are you drunk? Did you actually drunk dial me? Oh my god."

Jean cleared his throat. "It's actually not Eren."

The voice went silent for a long time, and Jean began to think they had hung up. "Who is this?"

"Um, Jean? Jean Kirschtien. I'm a friend of Eren's." He stumbled over the word friend, but it fit better than anything else.

The voice turned bitter. "I see, and why did you think it was a good idea to call me? When any sane person would be asleep?"

"We're in a situation, and Eren refused to call you himself. Or even admit that we need help to be honest."

"Yes that sounds like him. What makes you think I would help you?"

"I actually have no idea. I don't know you. Mikasa just told me to call you."

Now the voice sounded vaguely amused. "You must be in some real trouble if Mikasa said you should turn to me. What seems to be the problem?"

"It's raining, the tire blew, Eren's refusing to admit defeat while making no progress outside. It's the middle of the night and were a couple hours outside of town."

"Where are you?"

"Are you serious?" Jean said, incredulously. They had seemed utterly uninterested in helping them a minute ago.

"Just tell me where the fuck you are kid."

Feeling slightly offended that the voice thought he was a kid, Jean gave them their location.

"That's on my way, actually. I'll be there in fifteen."

And they hung up.

Jean put down Eren's phone, unsure of what just happened.

He crawled back to the backseat and opened the window again. "Eren, I got us a ride, you can give up now."

Eren grunted something like "never", but he stood up anyway. "Who the fuck was willing to give us a ride in these conditions?"

"Um."

Eren's eyes widened. "No. You didn't."

"I kind of did?"

"You bastard, that is such an invasion of my privacy I should castrate you right now."

"Actually, Mikasa kind of already threatened me with that if I didn't get you out of here okay, and she scares me more than you do, no offense. Anyway, why are you so upset? It's a ride back into town. You can sleep in a bed tonight, and you'll be dry. Come on, get back in the car."

"No," Eren said, the determined look back in his eye. "It'll still be a few hours before he gets here. I can finish this and we'll be gone."

"Actually, he said he'll be here in fifteen."

The look Eren gave him was one of pure betrayal. "Why would you do this to me? What have I ever done to you?"

"Really? You want to go there?"

"Fine, we don't exactly get along, but it's not like we hate each other."

"What even happened between you two? Who is this guy?"

"It's complicated," Eren said, looking listlessly at the half unscrewed tire.

"Is he an ex?"

"Kind of."

"What does that even mean?"

"You can't tell anyone about this," he began, but was interrupted by headlights as a car pulled over. He gave Jean a panicked look.

Jean watched in interest as a short figure stepped out of the car. "Well, hurry up and get in, we can get your car tomorrow."

Looking for all the world like he was going to the gallows, Eren stood and trudged over to the car. Preparing himself for the biting rain, Jean got out of the car and followed him, grabbing their things out of the trunk as he passed it, and slipping into the backseat, as Eren opened the door to the passenger seat, still resolutely looking forward, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Jean handed his bag to him and he took it without responding.

The person, Jean assumed this to be the mysterious Levi, got back into the driver's seat and for the first time Jean got a good look at him and gasped violently.

Eren gave him a pleading look and Levi looked at him curiously.

"Don't' die in my car," he said, before turning around and starting the car.

Jean stared at Eren in disbelief, but he refused to meet his eye.

It was the freaking TA from their French literature course. The fucking gorgeous, aloof TA that most of the class ogled, and had sent half of them into a sexual identity crisis.

The first hour passed as such. The two sitting in the front, ignoring each other so intensely that the tension was palpable, and Jean sitting in the back, awkwardly fiddling with his phone.

Jean was very familiar with how Eren dealt with feelings. He had known him since childhood, and after years of bearing the brunt of his substantial temper, he knew he never repressed emotions well. They always bubbled to the surface.

"You could have called me."

Levi snorted. "You're the one who ran away after it happened. I figured talking to me was the last thing you wanted."

"You should have known better. You know me better than that."

"Do I?" Jean noticed that they slipped into French. "_You show up with this boy in the middle of the night what am I supposed to think?_"

"_You're an idiot. First of all, he's not my boy. He has a boyfriend, who is literally perfect. Also he speaks French fluently, so you're not hiding anything from him. His mother is French. He was in your French literature class with me for God's sake._"

Levi turned to glare at Jean who waved awkwardly, from the back seat. "_Bonjour_," he said sarcastically.

Levi ignored him and turned back to face Eren. "Do you trust him?"

Eren barely hesitated, looking back at Jean for a split second before responding. "Yes."

There was more silence.

"I'm really fucking mad at you," Eren said.

"I know you are. You're very bad at hiding your anger." Levi even sounded slightly amused.

"I'm mad because I thought I was worth more than that to you."

"You are."

"Fuck you, you can't just tell me that after several weeks of nothing."

"It goes both ways. The first time I see your number on my screen since then and it's from horseface back there."

"Hey," Jean began indignantly.

"Shut up Jean," Eren growled, and returned his attention to Levi. "You were so cold and distant, it was so obvious you wanted me gone."

"That's just who I am. You knew that from the beginning. I'm not a particularly warm and fuzzy person."

"I know that, but I was in a vulnerable place."

"So was I. I could have lost my job."

"My place is on the right up here," Jean said after a few more seconds of tense silence.

Soon they rolled to a stop outside his apartment complex. "Thanks for the ride," he said, giving a small sarcastic salute to Levi, who returned it with a cool, apathetic look.

He jogged up the steps to the front door, fumbling with the keys. As he opened it, he glanced back to the car, to see the two of them passionately making out in the cramped confines of the front seat. He smiled, and nearly bounced up the four flights of stairs to his apartment.

He realized just how exhausted he was, as he was slipping into the already warm bed, and curled up against Marco's back.

Marco groaned. "I really hope that's you Jean, because if it isn't I'm going to scream."

Jean smiled and kissed the back of his neck. "Yeah it's me. Sorry I woke you."

"It's okay, I wasn't sleeping too well anyway." He yawned and turned to face Jean, kissing him gently on the nose. "Everything turn out okay?"

"Yeah," Jean said, relaxing into Marco's arms. "Everything is great."

**Author's Note**: Hey, I haven't really written in a long long long time, and posted for even longer, and I have never done anything in this fandom, so I apologize if this sucks, but I really enjoyed writing it. Hope you liked it!


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